Baseball player&#39;s mitt or glove



June 24, 1930. u. BERRY 1,767,115

BASEBALL PLAYERS MITT OR GLOVE Filed Oct. 31, 1925 Fig. 9

u. C. Berr INVENTOR.

ATTORNEY;

Patented June 24, 1930 1 orriee UrroN o. BERRY, or LrNcoLN, NEBRASKA BAsIiBALL PLAYERS MITT on GLOVE Application filed October 31, 1925. Serial No. 65,996.

My invention relates'to' baseball mitts or gloves, its object being the provision of a glove or mitt which with slight variations may be used by the various players of a base bail nine, which is so constructed that it will adapt itself to all hands from the largest to the smallest, which will cushion the ball more effectively than other gloves will, and which possesses various novel features of construction which will be fully set forth in the following description. Hav-. ing in view this object and others which will be mentioned in the following description, I will now refer to the drawings, i'n'which Figure 1 is a view of the palm surface of themitt. p I

I Figure 1 is a similar view of the palm surface but in reduced size and showing the action of the ball against the flange.

Figure 2 is a viewof the back surface of the mitt.

Figure 2 is a similar view inreduced size but showing a slight modification. V

Figure 3 is an edge View of the mitt drawn to a reduced scale.

Figure 4 is a view of a portion of the.

interior of the mitt, the mitt being sectioned a short distanceback of the hand opening.

Figure '5 is a sectional view, the section being len'gthwise'of the mitt. I V

Figure 6 is another sectional View of th mitt and showing particularly the arrangement of the finger stalls and the attachment for reducing the size of the wrist opening.

Figure 7 is a perspective view'of the interior of themitt. i

Figure-8 is another perspective view of the interior of. the mitt showing particularly the position of the handwith relation to the finger stalls.

Figure 9 is a view in perspective of the roll padding, the figure being drawn to a reduced scale.

The mitt proper includes aback portion 10 of leather, cloth or leatherlining 10?, and a palm 11. The parts 10 and 10 are secured together preferably by several lines of stitching at the wrist portion and they are.

secured together and to the palm, 11 by rivet eyelets along the outer edges. While these parts are preferably secured together by I means of rivet eyelets, they may be stitched together at all of their edges, and in practice it is desirable that they bestitched together at the junction of the thumb and body portions of the mitt so as to avoid injury to the ball. Strips 12 of flexible material are sewed at their ends to the parts 10 and- 11 to form finger stalls for the player. Additional strips 13 in looped form are secured to the parts 10 and 11 at the edges. The

strips 13 thus form loops for engaging the thumb and little finger of the player and for thus keeping the hand spread and in comfortable position, the other fingers resting in the finger stalls between the strips 12. The opening between the back and the palm of the mitt is made large enough for the intro- I duction of the hand and because of the general shape of the mitt the openingwillin most cases be found to be of the most com- 7 fortable size for the wrist. In case, how- .ever, it is desired to restrict the size of the opening, a strip of padding 14. may be attached to the parts 10 and 10 by means of snapfasteners as shown in Figure 4. The strip 14'may be inserted or removed whenever desired. A similar result in permanent form may be secured by attaching a strip of padding li" to the edgesof the back portion as shown in Figure 2. The back portion may be further modified as in Figure-2' by cutting away a portion '15 to relieve the pres sure on the players knuckles. The opening 7 15 may be made in thepart 10 only or in both the parts. 10 and 10. In either case the parts 10 and 10 are stitched together at the. edges of the opening. The padding of the mitt includes two layers 16 of wool-felt" and a roll 17 of hair felt, all of the layers being firmly stitched together to prevent any possibility of displacement. The layers 16 cover the entire palm of the mitt and are arched. The false palm l9 and the outer'felt layer 16 are arched inwardly and are bound by the edgepadding orroll 17 ,"while the palm 11 andithe inner layer of felt 16 are also a space l8 between the two arched portions of the glove. 'The space '18 provides anair so i arched but to a greater extent; thus forming Y pocket which can not be completely crushed or collapsed. The spreading of the glove by the hand opens the air space 18 after impact of the ball in the palm of the glove. Both the wool felt padding and the hair padding possess considerable resiliency, but not sufficient to cause the ball to bounce. The air pockets 18 form air cups for cushioning the impacts of the ball. Under the pressure of the ball the air or a portion of the air is forced out through the padding, but owing to the resiliency of the material the air is drawn back into the pockets as the pressure is released.

The false palm 19 is laced to the mitt proper, it being provided with rivet eyelets at its edges. The palm 11 has rivet eyelets at the wrist portion as shown in Figure 2 while the rivet eyelets secure the parts 1O. 10 and 11 together at all other edges. Owing to the rollpadding 17 the ball pocket of the mitt is relatively one and one-half times the diameter of the ball. "This depth may, however, be varied'considerablyby increasing or decreasing the thickness of the roll padding 17 When the ball strikes the side of the pocket the depth of the pocket usually prevents the ball from bouncing out of the mitt. This is of great importance particularly to amateur players, who are apt to lose the ball. The ball can be made still further secureby means of a "horse-shoe shape strip 20 of leather which is stitched at its outer edge only to the false palm 19. Theelfect of the ball on this strip 20 is shown in Figure 1. As the ball glances out of the pocket it strikes the loose edge of the strip 20 and is thus easily held in the pocket. v

The parts 10 and 10a of the glove are practically integral since they are united by the stitching or by means of rivet eyelets, or both. The stitching may be confined to the edges or if preferred, there may be numerous lines of stitching across all parts of theback. The palm 11 issecured to the parts 10 and 10 by means of rivet eyelets along all parts of the edge except at the hand opening. During use of the glove and while inserting the hand into the love or removing it therefrom, there is considerable strain at the edges of the hand opening and this strain would ordinarily tend to pull out the eyelets at the junctions. In order to prevent this there are two pairs of additional eyelets, one pair at each side of the opening as shown in Figure 2 and Figure 2e, and through these eyelets are passed thongs 21. The eyelets through near the opening which registers with the eyelet carried in the back only. The thongs 21 thus bind the back 10 and palm 11 together at the opposite ends of the hand receiving opening. These thongs thus receive all of the strain and prevent injury to those parts of the glove adjacent the hand opening. Additional pairs of rivet eyelets are secured through the portions 10 and 10 at the outer ends of the thumb portion and the body portion- These eyelets are connected by thongs 22, the purpose of this arrangement being to make that part of the palm adjustableto the convenience of the player. There is also provided a scuff strip 23 at the edge of that part of the glove occupied by the little finger. Moving balls are fre quently scooped up from the ground and the scuff strip 23 being placed at the point of greatest wear, will reinforce the glove and considerably increase its life. The repeated impacts of the ball tend to weaken the leather of the falsepalm 19especially about the thumb portion. For reinforcing this portion, a strip of leather 24, shown in dotted lines in Figure 1, is secured along the margin of the part 19, through the thumb and little finger portions, and it may be extended around the entire edge of the part 19, but its main importance is at the junction of the thumb and body portions to prevent the ball from loosening the eyelets at that point. The padding 14 may be secured to the parts 10 and 10 by stitching,

or it may be secured so as to be more readily detachable, as by means of eyelets and thongs similar to those shown at 21, or by means of snap fasteners or the like.

Having thus described my invention in such full, clear, and exact terms that its utility will be readily understood by others skilled in the art to which it pertains, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States-is:

UPTON o. BERRY.

which the thongs 21 pass are disposed at each end of the hand receiving opening, and one of each passes through the back 10 adjacent the opening while the other eyelet i is spaced away from the opening and prefverably passes both through'the back-10 and palm 11.. The palm 11 also has'an, eyelet 

